MAAC Weekly Roundup: Jan. 12

Monmouth and Iona are on a collision course for the biggest meeting of the MAAC season so far on Friday night.Here are some numbers to know from the past week of MAAC play:

7 – That’s the number of home games Siena has won this season. That number is also the number they have played at the Times Union Center this season, as they are undefeated at their home, which hosts the MAAC tournament in March. Four of those wins, three in conference, have come by double-digit margins, culminating in this scary number from Friday’s win:

91 points scored by @SienaMBB are the program's most in a regulation game since a 92-75 win over St. Joseph's on Dec. 29, 2009 at @TUCenter

1.13 – That’s the total of points per possession Canisius is allowing on defense so far this season, which was apparent on Saturday when the offense failed to come through to cover for it. Saint Peter’s pulled off a 70-53 win over the Golden Griffs, which prompted guard Kassius Robertson to say this after the game on why their defense has struggled: “Just sticking with it for 30 seconds. Sometimes we’ll have great outs for 10 seconds, we’ll keep guys in front, keep guys in front, and then there’s some defensive lapse within, like, the last five seconds of the other team’s play and then it’s a bucket.” After winning four in a row, the Griffs have lost three straight in MAAC play and get a reprieve from conference play with a trip to Dartmouth.

0.92 – That’s the points per possession that Saint Peter’s allowed through their first five conference games. That has helped the Peacocks get off to their best start in league play since the 1996-97 season.

MAAC Power Rankings

1

Monmouth

2

Iona

3

Saint Peter’s

4

Siena

5

Canisius

6

Manhattan

7

Niagara

8

Fairfield

9

Quinnipiac

10

Rider

11

Marist

Tweets of the Week

Here’s one story you should read from Pete Iorizzo of the Times Union:

“I’m just trying to win games. At the end of the day I’ll take a MAAC championship and me personally a National Championship over a home winning streak.” – Iona senior A.J. English on their win over Rider, the Gaels have won 26 in a row at home after their win over Marist on Saturday

“It felt like it was minus 100. If we truly finished only minus four, that’s celebration time” – Monmouth head coach King Rice, when told Quinnipiac out rebounded his team 50-46 in their win Saturday

“I had no idea how it would go. I was going to have to see how the game was playing out. He looked great, his competitive level was high, and his energy was high. The 16 minutes today was perfect just to get his feet wet.” – Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore on Chiase Daniels’ return to the lineup on Saturday

“I could care less about what my stat line says as long as we’re winning. My job is to make sure we’re winning games, and if we’re winning games, I’m happy.” – Monmouth junior Justin Robinson on his 14 points and four assists in their win over Fairfield

“The plan was to play 10 minutes today, just to see how it would work out. After I played my 10 minutes, they asked me if I was fine, and I said yes. I guess during the game, it got better. As the game went on, it kind of loosened up.” – Iona sophomore Deyshonee Much, who played 26 minutes and added 21 points, six rebounds in their win over Marist

“We’re starting to figure it out. We have a lot of competitors on this team who all want to win. It’s gonna take us some time to completely figure out how to do it without him for now but I think it’s coming along slowly but surely.” – Siena junior Brett Bisping, who poured in a career-high 28 points, on playing without classmate Marquis Wright

“It was a big play in the game after we fought our way back. It’s just breakdowns, man. We’re finding ways to lose games. You can’t fall down there and leave arguably their best shooter wide open. We’re in games, we’re right there down the stretch. We just keep finding ways to shoot ourself.” – Rider head coach Kevin Baggett, after their loss to Fairfield on Saturday dropped them to 0-5 in conference play

Ryan Restivo wrote the America East conference preview for the 2015-16 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the America East conference among others for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.